Literary life

Mark Sanderson at large in a world of books.

12:01AM BST 23 May 2006

It is rather appropriate that a 'band of brothers' code of honour lives on among military historians.

A prime example of authorial selflessness was given by Saul David at the launch of his new book, Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire, at the Frontline Club in London. After thanking his family and publisher for their support he went on to devote the most heartfelt part of his speech to commend the work of a fellow Viking author, Hugh Sebag Montefiore, whose Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man, will be published next month.

Such bravery in laying down his book for another's surely deserves a medal.

The Oxford English Corpus, a research project into the language of the 21st century, has just clocked up its one billionth word.

The electronic database was set up in 2000 to provide Oxford University Press reference books with the most up-to-date examples of how our language is changing. However, many entries are unlikely to reach the pages of the OED. We can all do without, for example, 'bitchfest', 'geektastic' and 'stupidville'.

It is, apparently, not possible to identify the billionth word because, according to a spokesman for OUP, 'there's no single interpretation of what a "word" is.' A rather worrying admission, one might have thought, for an institution whose stock-in-trade is dictionaries.

According to a recent survey, by the age of 12 only three per cent of children are not read a bedtime story by their parents. Despite this suggesting a rather cosy state of affairs at bedtime up and down the land the Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson is leading a campaign on behalf of the deprived three per cent.

One of its supporters is Cherie Blair. In the words of our First Lady: 'One of the great joys of being a parent is the opportunity it gives you to read aloud with your kids. There is nothing better than to snuggle down at the end of the day with a good story to share.'

No doubt she is currently treating little Leo to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Lady Antonia Fraser was among the guests at a party to mark the publication of John Gross's The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes. One of the entries reveals her husband, Harold Pinter, in typically irascible - and laconic - form.

Alan Ayckbourn, at the time a young actor appearing in The Birthday Party, recalls asking the playwright about the character he was playing: ' "Where does he come from? Where is he going to? What can you tell me about him that will give me more understanding?"